Watching the Chiefs play this season has been a roller coaster of emotions…from the low of Patrick Mahomes’ knee injury to the high of winning the AFC Championship and going to the Super Bowl. The big game will be no different for Chiefs fans, from the low of each dropped pass to the high of each touchdown…they’ll be rowdy and loud, acting in ways they don’t normally act. Why do these games evoke such intense emotions, and more importantly, how can we handle the highs and lows of watching the Chiefs in the Super Bowl?

            Dr. Gregory Nawalanic (Nuh-wall-nick) is a psychologist at The University of Kansas Health System’s Strawberry Hill Campus…and a sports fan himself. In the video, he talks about what happens to the brain when you watch your favorite team play, especially in a high stakes game like the Super Bowl. He explains the brain produces two kinds of chemicals. Dopamine, which regulates the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, is produced when the team is winning and cortisol, a hormone that the body produces when under stress, is released when the team is doing poorly or loses. He says it’s very important to keep things in perspective and realize that the outcome of the game won’t have any direct effect on your daily life, unless you’ve just lost a lot of money on a bet, something that can become a serious addictive problem. He also says it’s common for some fans to actually go into a depression after their team suffers a big loss, but if it goes on for several weeks, it’s time to seek help. Dr. Nawalanic also has advice on how not to overdo food and alcohol. He says research has also shown watching sports has, in some cases, caused reckless driving, heart attacks and even domestic violence…especially in cases where relatives or spouses are rooting for different teams. He has advice on how to handle that as well.